The Balkans today: Between the European integration and the American-Russian antagonism

Sfetas Spyridon (Associate Professor for Balkan History, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Department of Modern History), ssfetas@hist.auth.gr

The author deals with some key questions concerning the role of European Union in the Balkans. He stresses that the European Union failed both to settle the Balkan crisis and to create a system of collective security. It remains still only an economic zone with divergent political positions in global affairs. American intervention and the Pax America determined the future of the post-communist Balkan states. New small states as protectorates with fragile stability emerged. Globalisation proved to be on other aspect of the Balkanisation. The Balkans was designed to be a buffer zone against the potential Russian influence. But Russia, after its recovery under Putin, has been trying to return in the Balkans, playing the energy card. The Balkan were included in the American-Russian energy war and propably in the new Cold War.

Keywords: Balkans, European Union, Kosovo, Greece-FYROM dispute on the name issue, Albanian separatism, Nabucco versus South Stream, Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline versus AMBO, American bases, American anti-missile defence system, Russian policy in the Balkans